Elections for Sale

The present situation seems bizarre. It now costs hundreds of millions of dollars to “purchase” a presidential election. Obama and Romney are expected to spend about a billion dollars each.

We used to think that human beings elected their president and representatives, but now corporations are the big players. Corporations have been defined as “persons” by the Supreme Court. They can spend all the money theywant on elections because the Supreme Court (5 to 4) declared corporate money “free speech.” (One pundit remarked that he would consider corporations “persons” only when Texas executed one of them!)

Comedian Stephen Colbert started his own Political Action Committee and amassed over a million dollars. Colbert's PAC may legally accept unlimited funds from anonymous donors. Since the Federal Election Commission doesn't require full disclosure, Colbert likens his 501 (c)(4) to a "campaign finance glory hole": "You stick your money in the hole, the other person accepts your donation, and because it's happening anonymously, no one feelsdirty!" “It’s the way our Founding Fathers would have wanted it, if they had founded corporations instead of just a country.”

Torture Now Acceptable

During the Bush administration, there was a debate over torture. There was an expectation that the Obama administration would prosecute torturers. But the Obama administration did nothing, with the result that those who ordered torture have not been punished, and those who order torture in the future will presumably get away with it.

“Extraordinary rendition” (transporting prisoners to other countries where they have often been tortured) is now an“acceptable” practice. President Obama endorsed it in 2009. AndU.S. citizens believed to be “terrorists” can now legally be assassinated by U.S. agents abroad.

Alien Invasion!

The anti-immigrant (really anti-Mexican) legislation being passed in some states disturbsme greatly. And the fact that some states now permit police to stop and question people(largely Mexican people) about their “legal” status raises red flags in a country that issupposed to respect human rights.The phrase “illegal aliens” is offensive. “Illegal” connotes “criminal,” and “alien” connotes an invaderfrom outer space. “Illegal aliens” is a term that Goebbels might well have coined for the Jews in Germany.